Category Archives: vintage

“C’Etait Un Rendez-Vous”: the Mercedes that could.

I first saw “C’Etait Un Rendez-Vous” about 7 years ago, and was absolutely blown away by it.  I used to watch it every day for a while.  A couple of years later, after speaking to a ‘car guru’ friend of mine, I learned that the car in the short film was NOT a Ferrari 275 GTB, but a Mercedes 450 SEL 6.9, which was later admitted in interviews by Claude Lelouch, maker of the film.  Since then, i’ve made it my duty to point this out to almost everyone who seems to think it is a Ferrari 275 GTB, the same thing I USED to think—until i was told the truth.

The sound of the engine, has been rumoured to be overdubbed from a Ferrari 275 GTB, something I feel to be consistent with the sound—unless proven otherwise by some other documentation.

I found this sweet photo of Mr. Lelouch mounting his camera kit on the SEL @ The Torrible Zone

(2nd grainy photo from IDCMB.com)

I’ve seen this clip about a million times, but I suppose for context and for people who have never seen it—-it is worth reposting here.

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video of the day. Alfa Romeo Junior Z @ Tsukuba.

Yes it is slow as a fat cow’s balls—but that’s not the point here!  One of my favourite Alfas, with that glorious sound on one of my favourite tracks in the world.

The return of Evo magazine’s Project Veyrog!

A couple of years ago, Evo Magazine bought a MK1 Audi TT 225 Coupe to modify and turn into a track day monster—the car’s progress had been updated through the Autumn of 2009, and then it fell off the face of the earth.  Well it is back, and will be doing track days all summer.  Good stuff; i’ll be following along.

foto of the day. M3.

The first REAL car (not counting KITT from Knight Rider & Dukes Of Hazzard’s General Lee—or the Batmobile, or any other crazy TV show car!) I ever got obsessed with—-like i-want-to-drive-one-now….when i was 9 years  was the BMW E30 M3.  For a long time, I thought I would just wait til I got older and buy one——-now, however, it seems that everyone else who wanted one, has bought them while they were cheap—-and have RUINED them by cheesy modifications and unoriginality.  I rarely see a non-bastardized E30 M3 anywhere.  I still would like to own one of these in the future, as it would go lovely with a urquattro in the same garage.  I find myself checked into reality by knowing that there are already very few well kept cars around, and there will be even less available by the time i start looking for one.   A shame, really….

(this one, in the photo—is actually an M3 Evolution Sport—which never came to the US market, as far as I know)

5-Cylinder Fury: Audi TT-RS & Audi Sport quattro

Fourtitude has posted some absolutely STELLAR photos of the absolutely legendary Audi Sport quattro and the new heir to the throne and future classic Audi TT-RS.  Obviously, being the Audiphile that I am—i was overcome with excitement frantically downloading every glorious photo I could. Here are some of my favourites.  Follow the link here to see the whole huge gallery of Audi porn.

It is a great article as well, with a link to the gallery of 100+ photos at the bottom right hand side of the page:

http://www.fourtitude.com/news/publish/Features/article_6779.shtml

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Top Gear Alfa Romeo Challenge.

If you haven’t seen this episode of Top Gear—-it is a classic!

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commercial(s) of the day. Strada & Brava (US).

“designed by computer modeling”!!!!!  Fiat responded to the VW Golf/Rabbit with this monstrosity…

The Brava, on the other hand…looked alright, but had the integrity of a pair of flip flops.  I love how the whole ad is filmed in a suburban neighbourhood somewhere in middle US soil! how tactical…..

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foto of the day. coupes.

Fantastic coupes of the early to mid 70s!!

Audi 100 Coupe S

Lancia Beta Coupe

Alfa Romeo Alfetta

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A110 of the day.

From the special IEDEI Alpine A110 foto archives.

Henry Giraglia & his Alpine A110 in 1975




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foto of the day. 131.

Fiat 131 Abarth, to be exact!

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alfa romeo junior z.

yes i love the Alfa Romeo Junior Z—–i know lots of people don’t like it, and i’ve had conversations with Alfisti who discredit its weird Zagato roots and shape—-however I find it to be quite unique, and in person it is very very tiny and compact! All types of cool!   I did learn something new today though; that the Junior Z was made in 2 forms, a short tail 1300 and a ‘longer’ tail 1600.  Also on the Alfa Workshop, there is a photo of a ‘mid-engined’ variant….

The Junior Z is quickly catching up to the Montreal when it comes to my favourite post WW2 Alfa Romeos.

these archival photos taken from the Alfa Workshop  

These scans were found on the AlfaBB some time ago, and I had saved them.  I’m not sure exactly who had scanned them.

CLICK TO ENLARGE (article is in English!)

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foto of the day. benzes.

a bunch of killer Mercedes-Benz race cars!

(click to enlarge)

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a belgian RS2.

The hottest wagon ever….in my favourite colour for an RS2.  These pictures are from Simoni’s thread on the S2 Forum.

these are just so facking cool.

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unknown car of the day. Goliath GP 700 Sport.

One of the post-war cars developed in Germany, loosely based on a VW Beetle platform (correction): upon further investigation, it seems that the most recent sole survivor was discovered with an older VW chassis transplant, however the original GP 700 Sport was based on an OEM original Borgward chassis design. —–with a LOT of design similarity to the Porsche 356 (also Beetle-based), the Goliath GP 700 Sport was built with lots of aluminium, and sported a mighty 36hp.  The amount of parts that it actually shares with a VW is unclear, as it doesn’t use a rear-engined layout like the Beetle did.  Very few of these cars exist (reportedly 3 are still in existence).   Produced between 1950 and 1953, by Borgward. The car had Bosch Fuel Injection (!), front engined, front wheel drive, and a transversely mounted engine—-all revolutionary at the time and very unique.

Lots of information and photos here:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=406656&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

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ad of the day. ur quattro

woman. ‘mobile phone’. high heels. weird airplane.  ur quattro.  all the makings of a classic vintage Audi commercial!

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foto of the day. RSR

I look at this Black 911 RSR on a 6SpeedOnline.com post and it occurs to me that this has to be one of THE coolest cars ever—-not just because it is a rare car in Black with silver writing–but because of the muscular stance, the legendary scary performance, and its overall presence.  Old Ferraris? screw that…..gimme an old RSR over anything with weird yellow horse logo.

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“making time”

My favourite film of all time is a brilliant English film named Withnail & I.  It is not a car-related film, but for me it is just an absolutely hilarious, clever, and fantastic film about 2 strange and interesting blokes wired on chemicals.  I have watched it far too many times…

One of my favourite scenes from this film, however, DOES involve cars—-and what a great scene it is.  I suppose it is a little bit out of context when played on its own—–but it still cracks me up in every way.

For me, this is the Alpine A110 of films. It is strange….and probably not for everybody—but a ‘must see’ in my book.

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poster of the day. A110.

I want this original poster.

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window sticker of the day. 911sc

A window sticker from a 1979 Porsche 911 SC Coupe.  In case you are interested, the original price of $28,660 turns into $87,365 when adjusted for 2011 with inflation over the years.  That’s just about the price of an equivelant 911 today!

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